Bulk Update Users

Occasionally, it may be necessary for Admins to perform a bulk/mass update to the Users within their portal. Absorb's built-in User Import tool provides Admins a way to do just this, in addition to adding Users for the first time. 

Contents

• Performing A Bulk Update
• Bulk Updating A Field
• Bulk Copying Field Data
• Bulk Assigning Roles & Permissions
• Bulk Updates & Automatic Actions

Performing A Bulk Update

The User Import option can be found within the Users report, in the Add New context menu on the right-hand side.

After clicking on User Import, you will be presented with the option of selecting a CSV file from your computer. You will want to make sure all of the information within the CSV file is set up as you wish to see it in Absorb, prior to implementing the update. 

Please Note:

• When performing a bulk/mass update of Users, the Password column is not required.
• The "Username" field cannot be bulk updated using the User Import feature. 

Once your CSV has been uploaded, you will be presented with a number of options in order to complete your update. You will need to turn the Update Existing Users button to ON. Doing so will update any Users based on your specifications. In the image below, we have chosen to have the username generated using the Username column from our CSV file. Additionally, the unique identifier being used to match our CSV to our LMS data is the Email column to the Email Address already in Absorb. 

You can always customize these options to meet your organization's needs, but the above selections are some of the most used. Any User data that is not addressed by your CSV file due to the column missing will go unaltered. Once happy with your selections, you can opt to Validate and save your changes. This will update all of the Users in Absorb to match the data within your CSV file.

Bulk Updating A Field

If you are looking to bulk update a specific User field, this is also possible through a bulk update. You will want to follow the instructions from Performing A Bulk Update, but before validating, follow up with utilizing Additional Fields below your Source Data Preview. 

In order to bulk update a specific field, you will want to find it from the Additional Fields section, and then enter the data needed. For example, we could assign all Users included in this CSV file to be set with their Language as French, and Country set to Canada. This could be executed for other fields including Custom Fields, Notes, Location, etc.

Note:

• You are able to select if Users bulk update as Active or Inactive. The Inactive status is useful if you want to update the Users ahead of time or have additional setup to do before allowing them access back to the LMS. The updated Users will not be able to log in to the LMS unless their status is Active.
• All User records in your CSV file will be updated with this information, so be sure that it is expected for all of these Users to have this new information prior to proceeding.
• If you have a Blended Billing Model, a tool tip will state whether the Department you've selected has Internal or External Billing applied. Please ensure you have selected the correct Department and the Department has the expected Billing Type.

Bulk Copying Field Data

Bulk updates can also be used to copy data from one field to another in order to provide Admins a way to save time from manually updating individual Users. To do so, you will want to set up your CSV file so that the the column which would typically be matched to one field, is instead matched to the field you wish to copy the information over to.

For example, if you wish to copy the Postal/Zip Code to the Location field, you could do so by assigning the Postal Code column to the the Location field (as seen below). The columns in your CSV field can be easily matched to any field in the LMS, thereby copying over information as needed.  

Of course, you will still need to perform all of the other steps as found in the Performing A Bulk Update section above, after which you will Validate, and then Update your Users.

Bulk Assigning Roles & Permissions

Another option in the Additional Fields section is to bulk assign roles and permissions. These options are similar to what you would find when setting up a User individually. The difference here is that instead of just one individual, you will be providing all Users within your CSV file the ability to a Learner, Admin, Instructor, or any combination of the three. Determining a role here - like System Admin, or other custom-made role - will also assign this to all Users found in your CSV file. As with the other options described above, you will still need to follow the steps as outlined in the Performing A Bulk Update section at the top of this article.

Bulk Updates & Automatic Actions

One advantage of utilizing bulk updates is through the automatic actions that can be completed by Absorb based on bulk updates performed by an Admin. As an example, an Admin could bulk update Users to have a Custom Field in their profile changed to have the text, "2017 Summit Attendee". 

To create an automated workflow around this, an Admin could then enable Automatic Enrollment rules in an Online Course or Curriculum. This filter could be set up to enroll all Users that have a Custom Field that matches the text of, "2017 Summit Attendees".

While the above is a simple workflow, there are certainly more complex workflows that could be used in order to utilize bulk updates, and availability rules for Groups, Courses, Curricula, and Resources among other options.